New Years has some well-defined connotations for most of us: new beginnings, reflections, a chance to better ourselves, and above all, a chance to welcome the new year in a drunken stupor. On that note, here is a slightly belated New Years gift for you all—a statistically insignificant study of the correlation between my savings and the amount I’m willing to spend on alcohol in a given day, based on a year of data from my bank account. I’ve been told that good writers share themselves with their readership. If that’s the case, I should come out of this looking … Continue reading Testing My Demand for Alcohol

On Wednesday December 2nd, two shooters carried out the deadliest mass shooting of 2015, killing 14 and injuring 22 others. In the wake of another mass shooting, reactions have been as one might have predicted: despair, incredulity, and political dissonance. Mass shootings have become a fascination in America. They garner a huge amount of social and political attention and are often cited as evidence by gun-control advocates that we have reached a critical point at which it no longer makes sense to allow (certain) individuals to own (certain) guns; that we should join the rest of the civilized world, invoke … Continue reading Americans Miss the Big Picture on Shooting Deaths

Last Thursday, Nicholas Kristof penned an article for the New York Times entitled “Drugs, Greed and a Dead Boy.” The piece provides a dismal account of an industry rife with predatory marketing schemes, ineffective treatments, and captained by covetous sociopaths who care more about making money than they do about public health and are prepared to circumvent FDA regulations in order to do so. Whatever your convictions, Kristof makes a compelling case for regulation based on historical evidence. It’s not until the last paragraph that he writes something that makes me pause: So if you agree with today’s politicians thundering … Continue reading This Essay is Not FDA Approved

After consideration, I have decided to omit the name of a private figure on the basis that my aim is not to denounce individuals, but faulty logic. Links have still been provided which may reveal that identity. Recently, I read about a woman from Jersey City who is attempting to subvert the city’s “Make it Yours” promotion, aimed at attracting residents from New York City. She is worried that this campaign is contributing to rising housing costs in the downtown area, presumably displacing previous residents who aren’t able to afford prime real estate anymore. Her campaign, dubbed “Take it … Continue reading Anti-Gentrification and Anti-Immigration Movements: Two Sides of the Same Dull Coin

Today, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that same-sex marriage is legally protected in all 50 states. This is obviously a huge win for the LBGTQ rights movement, and more generally for fans of equality under the law. It is a moment to celebrate an often-preached, rarely practiced tenant of American society: That one private citizen should not be unwillingly subject to the will of another. Likewise, the decision to adhere to the language of the first section of the 14th amendment is a huge victory for personal liberty. It is conversely a blow to the state-sponsored discrimination … Continue reading June 26th SCOTUS Ruling

Part 1 in a series on labor and wage The following is the first of likely three essays concerning popular myths that pertain to wage and employment. Herein, I will attempt to address the common popular fallacy that wage should necessarily rise in reflection of productivity. My aim is not to prove that this is never true, but rather to demonstrate that citing productivity as a rational for a mandated wage hike is a weak and incomplete argument. This is a fairly common misconception that has been elevated to an argument by some of either today’s best or most misguided … Continue reading Exploring the Tie Between Productivity and Wage